Thank you to those who reviewed. This story has received a lot more reviews and hits then I ever thought it would, so thanks.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or any related material in this fanfic. All characters belong to DC Comics.
Jump City-2:31 am-13th November-Warehouse District
A brute of a man with shaggy orange hair was pacing back and forth inside a run-down abandoned warehouse. The building was filled with crates containing all sorts of strange junk, the sort of junk that could be very dangerous in the hands of a midget genius. Remains of crates that had been busted open, quite literally, were strewn all about the far side of the dilapidated structure, away from the small, well-lit area that two people of vastly different shape and size were occupying.
"I'll crush him! I'll grind his bones into dust! How dare he touch my sister!" roared the bigger one in anger. He had long, shaggy orange hair with a well-grown beard and moustache; he was a giant of a man, with the physique and manner of a brute; he was wearing a black body suit with no sleeves and a yellow trim.
"You'll get your chance, my brutish friend. Our… friend who informed us of your sister's attack has suggested that we 'ask' the Titans for information on his whereabouts. Those snotty losers are the most likely to know where he is," said the smaller one, trying to calm down the raging giant. He was a midget, very short but with a very big head. He lacks facial hair, or any hair at all for that matter; he wore an ebony body suit with goggles sitting on his head.
The big one calm downed some, but continued his rapid pacing and consistently muttered things under his breath. The little one leant back in his makeshift chair that looked like it was made of pieces of crates and metal bars and held together by super-glue. It probably is.
"Don't worry, come nightfall, we'll go cause a ruckus at Main Street, attract the Titans attention and beat the info outta 'em. Once we get it, we'll go pay that butt-sniffer that slashed your sister a 'friendly' visit," said the seated midget with an evil grin. The brute turned towards his companion and grinned wolfishly.
"Yes, we'll teach him a thing or two. I just wish Jinx was still with us, she would have enjoyed smashing the shrimp," agreed the giant. The grins faded into sad smiles for a second before they went back to grins.
Nightwing frowned at his computer, his blue eyes visible without the mask. He was seated in a dark room, in front of a computer that supplied the only light in the room.
He thought back to the 'conversation' with Red-X. He was still very unsure of what to make of the situation. Raven had confirmed the fact that no lies had been told, but she had also stated that he might have had a dampener of some sort or had special training, very good liars could lie without tipping off an empath, only telepaths could get through such training.
True, Red-X had taken the belt from the store, how, the ex-boy wonder didn't know. There had been incredibly high security around the vault holding the belt, yet X hadn't set off a single alarm and no cameras had caught a shot of him, leading Nightwing to believe that the villain had tampered with either the tapes or the cameras.
The other Titans had been sceptical of the story, but not to the point of idiocy. They had trouble believing that their old friend had just attacked a person like that. They couldn't exactly believe that he was helping some nameless evil, yet they knew that it was possible; he had worked with Slade after all.
Also, X hadn't made clear his motives. Avenging a friend? Hardly, X had been planning on robbing the warehouse the girl worked at. That would likely get her fired, so that one was out.
Forgiveness? Doubt it, Red-X can hardly be forgiven for stealing a highly dangerous super-suit, attacking the Titans, stealing Zinothium which eventually resulted in the city almost being ravaged by a giant zinothium-powered laser cannon operated by Doctor Chang. His reporting a crime is a pitiful attempt for forgiveness, if it is even such an attempt.
Let him get away with the belt? Ridiculous, that belt powers the whole suit, letting him keep it would be a crime within itself. X would know this, so that is ruled out.
The only real reason would be if he were working with, or for, a more powerful villain, but Red-X is a simple thief, he wouldn't dream of working with someone like Slade. So that leaves him just trying to pester the Titans, which would be stupid because the chances of getting arrested just so you can bother a team of superheroes is ludicrously high.
Nightwing sighed; realising that he would just have to wait to see what X did next for his motives to become clear. The vigilante swapped over to trying to figure out how Selinda Flinders, the woman who had been attacked, had been hurt in such a way.
The most obvious one was Beast Boy. The cuts on Selinda's face almost exactly matched the marks that a slash from a tiger claw would leave. Beast Boy could have easily turned into a tiger and slashed her. He even had a story, however sceptical, pin-pointing him as the culprit. The fact that he was back in the city for no apparent reason made him look suspicious.
Red-X could have been the attacker. He might have made up the phoney story to try and shift the blame. It is entirely possible that his weapons could have made the slash marks. It was, however, unlikely that he would have slashed in the exact places a tiger claw would have.
Nightwing sighed again; this was getting him nowhere, he had no solid proof that Beast Boy had attacked Ms. Flinders, only a tale from a criminal and slash marks from a tiger claw.
The door swished open and Starfire walked in holding some papers with a grim look on her face. The team knew each other's aliases and had seen Nightwing with his mask off, though at the time he had been Robin the Boy Wonder. The ex-boy wonder looked at her and smiled briefly.
"Good news?" he asked. Starfire gave a sad smile and handed over the papers, Nightwing frowning as she did so. He froze as he looked at the papers, his eyes widening as he slowly read the information. He re-read it several times before it sank in.
The three pieces of A4 size white sheet paper stated that a Warehouse located at 34 Down Street had been robbed and the security guard, Selinda Flinders, had been brutally attacked. There were markings that showed there had been a reasonable number of people in and out of the storerooms, ruling out X as the thief. In fact the only loose end was the fact that nobody knew a thing about how the security guard could have went three blocks with nobody noticing her, nor whatever green animal was in pursuit.
Nightwing shook his head, having trouble believing it, if they found out how to tie up that end then there would be no choice but to report that Beast Boy was the culprit and come out with what had happened five years ago.
'No,' Nightwing thought adamantly, "No, Beast Boy didn't do this, just because X's story fits doesn't automatically make Beast Boy the criminal, merely a suspect. The team now had to be alert for their old friend and be prepared to use force to bring him in for questioning.
Nightwing told Starfire the bad news and the alien princess left with a glum nod. Nightwing knew the other two wouldn't like this, but they had a job to do and if they let this slide then they would be as bad as the criminals they catch. The spandex-dressed superhero ran a hand through his cropped ebony hair, hoping that the others, particularly Raven (who, he noted, was very touchy about Beast Boy), saw things that way too.
Jump City-7:54 am-13th November-Garfield Logan's Apartment
Garfield Logan woke slowly. As he began to enter a state a proper consciousness he remembered his conversation with the person he had met in his apartment last night, his surprise had been incalculable.
He washed his face in the basin and, when finished, walked over to the heater and slammed a fist into the button. The machine whirred to life slowly; sputtering constantly, but after a short time was running quite well. The changeling gaped at it.
'It worked. It worked!' he thought in surprise unable to believe his stroke of luck. His mind shot back to last night and punched the air in celebration of what his visitor must have done. He knew it had seemed warmer.
As he got dressed he thought back to what Red-X had told the Titans, no doubt something had been set up to make the story appear true. Shimmer had probably been working at such a warehouse and it had probably been robbed as well. The ex-Titan sighed as he realised he was going to have to avoid the Titans like the plague.
'No, not the plague,' the green man thought sullenly, 'I don't need to avoid it. I'm universally immune thanks to my 'affliction'.' As a boy, Garfield Logan had been infected by a disease known as Sakutia, 'green fever', in Africa whilst his parents did their genetics work there. His parents had, in order to save him, altered his DNA so that it crossed the barrier between man and animal, a change of one point six percent. Because of this, Garfield Logan had become the missing link between man and animal, with the skin colour of avocados and the ability to change into any animal.
Logan went through the same process as he did the morning before, looking at the photo of his parents and him before he had been infected. He didn't avert his eyes as he pulled out the phot this time however, he kept up a sad gaze at the picture before putting it away.
As he left the building his mind wandered back to his days as a Titan, carefree days, minus the beatings, both physical and verbal. He sighed once before he gunned the engine of the motorcycle and left the unit.
Raven was angry. Nightwing had ordered the Titans out to patrol the city, looking for Beast Boy and any crime. Beast Boy was being blamed because of Red-X's damned story and the Titans had to bring him in for questioning. Nightwing was trying to keep this a Titan matter so he was going to have the changeling brought back to the Tower if they were to catch him.
She had stated that they had no solid proof that it was Beast Boy who had attacked the woman but Nightwing had told her that they weren't going to hurt him, unless necessary, only question him. The others had all felt as though Beast Boy had attacked the girl because of the newfound 'proof' and the fact he had betrayed them, but the half-demon knew better.
Whilst it was true that the changeling had betrayed them, he had never once truly endangered the city, never once attacked an innocent civilian, and never once attempted to kill the Titans. He had merely attacked them, trying to render the do-gooders unconscious to be brought back to Slade, he had tried to avoid doing extraneous amounts of pain.
When the Titans were all eventually captured, Beast Boy had, it turns out, 'accidentally' tied Raven up with the normal cable, not the soul-self limiting. Raven had then used her soul-self, teleporting away to disable the generator that was powering the special cables. Beast Boy had told Slade that he wasn't going to help him and then let Raven free the Titans and then beat Slade.
Slade unfortunately escaped, but Beast Boy had proven that whilst he wasn't a hero, he wasn't a villain. He had proved to Nightwing, then Robin, that not everything was black and white, which spurred the masked crusader's change into what he is today. He left, and now he has returned, five years later.
Jump City-7:43 pm-13th November-Main Street
"Where is he?" roared a giant with orange hair. He picked up a car and hurled it at the clustered superheroes in the middle of the road.
"Titans, Go!" shouted Nightwing, and they scattered. He front flipped onto the bonnet of the flying automobile and run along its body before leaping off the other end; a mere spit second before it crashed into the road.
As the hero hit the ground, he hurled a nightarang before sprinting forward. The projectile soared towards the midget who was hovering in the air beside the giant with a jetpack. A little device popped out of the backpack the tiny genius was wearing, and revealed itself as a laser as it destroyed the nightarang just before it hit him.
"Where is the green snotball who attacked Shimmer?" asked the flying midget just before the laser fired at the alien who was flying right at him. Starfire stopped quickly and crossed her arms in front like a shield as the blast hit her.
"We do not know where Beast Boy is and even if we did we would not tell villains like you, Gizmo and Mammoth!" replied the alien angrily as she appeared unscathed from the laser blast.
"Your… LYING!" roared Mammoth in rage as he stomped towards Starfire. Starfire felt the wind knocked out of her as the shaggy giant's fist ploughed into her stomach and a knee soon followed suit, sending her flying across the street.
"STARFIRE!" shouted Nightwing as he watched his love barrel into a building. He growled before hurling a trio of disks coloured black with a blue trim. They collided with Mammoth and exploded with a fiery fury matching that of the man who threw them. Mammoth staggered out of the explosion scorched and dazed, but relatively unharmed
Raven picked up a pair of trashcan lids using her telekinesis as she watched Gizmo quite literally fly circles around her cybernetic teammate. Cyborg was trying to grab the flying pest out of the air, as he wouldn't be able to hit him with his sonic cannon.
Gizmo laughed as he darted out of reach of the half-robot, but it was short-lived as a lid from a trashcan collided with the side of his big head. He half-turned to see the cause and saw Raven with her cloak around her and another lid floating next to her. He quickly formulated a plan for when she shot it towards him. Cyborg used the distraction well as he transformed his arm into a sonic cannon in order to shoot Gizmo out of the air.
Just as he was about to fire, Nightwing slammed into his back throwing off his arm and causing him to fire above Gizmo. The genius went, "Huh?", as the blue blast shot over his head, giving the appearance of him forgetting about Raven, the sorceress using this to her advantage. At least that's what she thought; just as the lid was about to hit him, Gizmo jetted up and shot the lid with his laser propelling it down into Cyborg as he got back up.
The cybernetic man was hit in the head quite hard and lost his balance falling on top of Nightwing who had just rolled back into a crouch behind Cyborg. The masked crusader groaned in pain as he lay underneath his dazed friend. Raven's eyes widened at the damage she inadvertently caused, Gizmo using her surprise to his advantage by zapping Cyborg with an electric charge.
Raven snapped out of it just in time to be hit by a flying trashcan that had been hurled by Mammoth. She crashed to Earth from the impact, being the last of the Titans to fall. At least, she was the last of the current Titans to fall.
"Hey, HIVE rejects," called out a voice from atop a streetlight. "If you're looking for me, you come to me! Not to people who have nothing to do with me!" With that the owner of the voice jumped down and went into a crouch, revealing that he has green skin and hair.
Beast Boy glared at the criminals who had turned towards him with grins on their faces. The changeling was wearing black denim jeans with an indigo short-sleeved top. He folded his arms and smirked at the two.
"Damn, what's happened to the Titans, they get hit by a bus? 'Cause they sure as heck didn't get beat up by you losers," taunted the green man as the superheroes looked at him with shock, as if seeing him for the first time. The two ex-HIVE members glared at the ex-Titan.
"You're gonna pay for what you did to my sister, Selinda! I'm gonna tear you limb from limb!" yelled the giant as he charged at Logan. He merely smirked in response and turned into a rhino, bearing the brunt of Mammoth's charge. The brute then picked up the struggling mammal but before he could throw the green rhinoceros it changed into a monkey and dropped onto Mammoth's head, pulling on his beard.
Gizmo jetted towards his struggling friend, fully intent on zapping the monkey. As he reached his friend, the monkey leapt off and turned back into Beast Boy. This meant that grabbed Mammoth's hair instead of the monkey and yanked. The giant screamed in pain and wrenched Gizmo off him and threw him at a building before he realised what, or whom, he was throwing.
Mammoth's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he saw whom he was throwing and he yelled a war cry as he charged again at the emerald changeling. Gar merely turned into a gorilla, a change that Mammoth didn't notice, as he was blind with rage, and slammed his fists together, with the shaggy giant in the middle. A loud crunch and a scream of pain ensued from the body breaking attack.
With both villains beaten into submission, Gar dusted his hands off and prepared to walk off but was stopped by a very familiar voice.
"Stop right there, Beast Boy! We're going to need to take you back to the Tower for questioning," said Nightwing as Starfire and Cyborg came up behind him to offer support if need be. Raven stood off to the side gazing sadly at Garfield, who sighed as he looked at her and his old friends. Raven mouthed, 'Go,' as their eyes met, the green man nodded slightly to show he caught it.
"Sorry, Nightwing but I have things to do. I might take you up on the offer later but I'll answer your first question now by saying, I did it in self-defence," Gar said simply and casually, but all he got in response was a growl and a narrowed eye-mask. The changeling sighed.
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this but," the changeling stated reluctantly, before continuing in a louder voice, "I believe now would be a good time to leave," A somewhat feminine voice assented from the darkness shortly before a pink flash of light rendered the Titans unconscious.
Garfield Logan gazed solemnly at the dark girl, just before he transformed into hawk and flew off into the night.
Well what do you think? Review if you read this please, I want your opinion. Also if you do review, could you please answer me this: "Do you think my characters (excluding BB) are in character?" Please answer if you do review, I would like to know what you think on that.